


Iwatobi Radio 3am Slot

by SamCyberCat



Category: Free!
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2017-09-14
Packaged: 2018-12-29 19:02:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12091398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamCyberCat/pseuds/SamCyberCat
Summary: When Sousuke decides to take on a summer job as Nagisa's co-host for an early morning radio show, he has no idea what he's getting into.





	Iwatobi Radio 3am Slot

**Author's Note:**

> Some SouNagi friendship for Sousuke's birthday! Though I have to admit that I actually started writing this for Nagisa's birthday and just didn't get it finished in time. Conveniently it works for both.

“So I wanna tell you guys that today will be sunny, sunny, sunny! ...But that would be lying, 'cause when I looked it up on my phone right now, it said we're getting grey skies and scattered showers all day.

“Could be worse though, it could be hailing or something. Oh man, last time it hailed in Iwatobi it was a disaster! My friend Haru-chan, y'know, the one I talk about all the time, he was still out swimming in our school's pool, even though hail was totally forecast, so he should have known better. Mako-chan ran out to save him when the weather turned. But even though he was so brave, he just got pelted with hail as well. Then by the time they both got back into the changing rooms, they were shivering like you wouldn't believe. Good thing Gou-chan had towels prepared to wrap them up in, though I think they both caught a cold anyway.

“...Wait, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, the weather! Well, it ain't gonna be hail or sunshine, so just get ready for another super average day! To help you get started with that, I've lined up some super average tunes that aren't quite old enough to be nostalgic yet, but aren't new enough to be worth listening to. It's like what your music player looks like before you clean it out and all your friends are staring at you like 'why does he still have that lame song on his phone?' But don't worry! It'll still be a good time. I can't remember what the first song is, so I'll just put it on and tell you after!”

With that, Nagisa turned off the pre-recording of his own voice and looked at Sousuke, smiling expectantly. He clearly wanted some kind of feedback, but Sousuke just had no idea what to say to any of that. Yet Sousuke didn't want to hurt Nagisa's feelings, so he gave it his best go.

“That was... good?” he tried, “Are you sure you're supposed to tell people that the songs you're playing aren't worth listening to though? Won't that just make them switch to another station.”

Nagisa waved his hand, unfazed; “It's the 3am slot, no one listens to it anyway. I can pretty much say what I want and no one minds, since they're just trying to fill that time.”

“And this pays?” Sousuke checked.

“Not much, but it's a summer job, so what do you expect?” Nagisa replied, “I'm mostly just doing it to kill time. Plus, it means that I get to hang out with everyone else for the rest of the day, so it's a win-win situation. What do you say, are you in, Sou-chan?”

Sousuke... wasn't sure, if he was honest. Being a radio host was never something that he'd ever considered, even if it was just for the summer, during a timeslot that no one listened to. The main reason he was even here was because... well, he still hadn't found his direction yet after Rin left for Australia. But he knew that he needed to make friends and during the summer seemed like the best time, since most of the others were hanging around before they disappeared off to university or back to school. Gou had recommended Nagisa as being easy to get along with and when she'd also mentioned that his little radio show needed a co-host, it seemed worth a shot. Sousuke wasn't exactly an early morning person, so the 2am start he'd need to get here in time for the show would take some getting used to. But surely he'd adjust and he might even... grow to like it?

“I'm not very... personable,” Sousuke said, “Maybe I wouldn't be right for this.”

“Don't worry about that! I've got enough talk for both of us. You'd basically just be here for me to bounce gags off. That can be our dynamic. All the great comedy duos work that way,” Nagisa assured him.

“If you say so,” said Sousuke, “All right then. Can't see any harm in giving it a shot, at least.”

“Great! I'll see you first thing tomorrow morning!” Nagisa chimed.

***

That was how Sousuke ended up working on the Iwatobi Radio 3am slot. Though by the time the next morning came along, he was starting to worry that it might have been a mistake. He must have looked pretty rough walking into the station and even though there weren't many people around, everyone he saw looked pristine. Which included Nagisa. He was bright and cheerful in a way that no one had any business being at this time. He grabbed Sousuke's hand and pulled him into the recording booth as if they'd known each other for years. Even if they'd probably spoken to one another less than ten times in their lives and were mostly familiar through having some shared friends.

“You sit here,” Nagisa instructed, as he pushed Sousuke into a chair, “Try to talk into the mic and when the red light's on that means we're recording, okay?”

“Okay,” Sousuke echoed.

He thought that he could handle that much. Though it turned out to be for the best that he didn't have any questions, because as soon as Nagisa got to his own seat, he flicked a switch and the red light lit up.

“Goooood morning, Iwatobi!” Nagisa yelled. Why was anyone yelling at this time in the morning? Before Sousuke could consider the answer to that question, Nagisa pressed on, “This is DJ Spicy Rockhopper here to help you greet the day! So welcome to our show! And I say our show, because I've finally found a co-host to help me help you all to wake up. Why don't you introduce yourself...?”

Nagisa trailed off as if he was waiting for a name.

“You know I'm called Sousuke,” replied Sousuke, completely lost.

“Sou-chan! That's not how you do it. You have to come up with a cool DJ name,” Nagisa whined, “Sorry folks, guess I should've told him the basics a bit better before throwing him into the deep end. Ohhh! That could be your stage name! DJ Deep End!”

Sousuke stared at him; “You're not calling me that. No one is calling me that.”

“Okay, so DJ Deep End is here to help shake off the morning blues with his deep, gravelly voice that I'm sure some of you are gonna totally be into. I could definitely name a few people I know who fancy Sou-chan,” Nagisa continued.

“Please don't...” Sousuke muttered. He didn't think that any poor soul who might have had a crush on him deserved to be outed like that.

“Don't worry, Sou-chan, confessions are for our Tuesday slot. Today we do horoscopes,” said Nagisa, “But first, we have a couple of modern classics to get through. Both of these songs were played at my end of year festival at Iwatobi High, so you know they'll be good. Stick around folks and the stars will guide you as soon as we're back.”

The red light went off again as the music started to play. They'd only just started and already Sousuke felt exhausted.

“That was... intense,” he said.

“Really? I think it's pretty easy. You don't have to actually see anyone, so even if you mess up with what you're saying, it doesn't matter much,” Nagisa replied, with what was probably meant to be reassurance, “But don't worry, I'm sure you'll get into it.”

“I hope so,” said Sousuke, “Anyway, where do we get the horoscope information from?”

It didn't look like Nagisa had any magazines with him. Although on the sample recording he showed Sousuke yesterday, he did say that he'd looked up the weather on his phone, so maybe he was just going to do that again.

“Oh, I just make them up,” Nagisa dismissed, “I look up a list of the star signs so that I don't miss any of them out, but other than that I just tell people whatever I feel like.”

“Isn't that dishonest?” Sousuke asked.

“It's horoscopes, I don't think anyone really minds. Just don't say anything too horrible,” replied Nagisa.

Sousuke wasn't sure how to feel about that, but he also doubted that he could talk Nagisa down from his idea, especially if he'd been doing this for a while. So he just waited awkwardly until both of the songs had finished. Nagisa credited the artists as soon as they were back on air before he dived into his list of made up predictions.

“Okay, so it's time to look into our stars for this week,” Nagisa announced, “Y'know, on every list I find they always put them in the same order. But it kinda sucks that Pisces always has to go last, so I'm gonna do it the other way around today. So Aries, you're gonna have to go last for a change, okay? I'm sure you won't mind. Sometimes the anticipation is best. Anyway, let's get started. Pisces, it looks like this week you're gonna get revenge on that person who's been bothering you at work or school or wherever you are. Though while I'm sure that person totally deserves it, please try to go easy on them, to prove you're the bigger person. Next up is Aquarius. Oooh, that's Rin-chan's sign! Sou-chan, can you tell Rin-chan what to expect in his future?”

“Good things, I'd hope?” Sousuke tried. But when Nagisa gave him a sharp look, he carried on, “I mean... um, Aquarius... you have a strong spirit and you always pursue your dreams, more than anyone I've ever known. So even if you get set back sometime, I know that you'll make it through.”

“That's good, Sou-chan,” praised Nagisa, “Next up is Capricorn and ohhh, have I got good news for you, Ai-chan! It looks like love is just around the corner, maybe somewhere that you didn't expect to find it, like in that nice pizza place down the street. Oh yeah, you should all totally order from Pierside Pizza if you don't already, their meat feasts are the best. Plus, my friend Momo-chan does deliveries for them now, so you might get to see him. Anyway, Capricorn gets to find love and pizza, so Sousuke's gonna tell us what Sagittarius can expect. That's both Rei-chan and Momo-chan's signs, so make sure it's something good for both of them.”

Apparently Nagisa had memorised all of his friends star signs, which was... probably a good thing? Though Sousuke wasn't sure he could even tell Nagisa his own star sign.

“Right... so Sagittarius... you're probably going to eat breakfast and then do whatever you want,” Sousuke tried.

“That's a pretty vague one, but I'll let you have it. Some days are just vague. Not for Scorpio though, Mako-chan. You've got, like, a super specific day ahead of you,” Nagisa said, “First you're going to get up and make breakfast for your whole family, since you're so nice like that. Then you're gonna go call on Haru-chan like you always do, before the two of you come down to the beach to meet up with your good friend Nagisa, who you'll buy hot dogs for, because you love him so much. After eating all the hot dogs we can manage and probably dragging Haru-chan out of the ocean, we'll go call on Gou-chan and Rei-chan, okay?”

“Nagisa... don't you think that's too specific to Makoto?” Sousuke asked.

“What do you mean? Makoto's the only Scorpio that I know,” replied Nagisa.

“But there might be other Scorpios listening and you wouldn't want them all to go call on Nanase, would you?” said Sousuke.

“Huh... maybe you've got a point,” Nagisa agreed, “Though if they all want to come buy hot dogs for me then I probably wouldn't mind. Anyway, we need to move on. Libra is next and I don't think I know anyone with that sign, so you can just say whatever for this one, Sou-chan. Sometimes I even throw in a bad one just to make people sweat.”

“Libra. You are going to have a great day. The best day. You'll be happy,” Sousuke stated.

“Looks like we have a rebel here, folks!” Nagisa chimed, looking gleeful at the prospect, “I should up the game for my next one, but that's Virgo and I don't want anything bad to happen to Sou-chan.”

“Am I a Virgo?” Sousuke checked.

“Your birthday is 14th September, you're a Virgo,” Nagisa promised.

“Huh. I didn't know you knew my birthday,” Sousuke mumbled.

“I know all my friends birthdays. So yeah, Virgo is gonna have a great time co-hosting this radio show with Nagisa. So much so that he'll want to keep coming to do it from now on. Except on weekends, because who wants to get up early on a weekend?” Nagisa said.

“Right, thanks. Virgo will keep that in mind,” replied Sousuke, “What's next?”

“Leo! That's mine! Tell me what my future holds, Sou-chan,” cheered Nagisa.

“Right, so Leo are kind of bossy, but in a nice way, so that nobody notices-”

“Hey!”

“-And maybe if Leo behaves themselves, then after the show's over we can both go out to get food, because hearing about hot dogs is making me hungry,” Sousuke finished.

“You hear that? Sou-chan's offering to get hot dogs for every Leo out there. What a nice guy,” Nagisa said, his grin even wider than before, “Next up we have Cancer, the crab! That's Haru-chan's sign, which makes sense, since it's a water one. Haru-chan, you can't sit in the bath all day, okay? Even if it's tempting. I'll come bother you later and maybe even bring Sou-chan along with me, so expect us to come over maybe. Right, Gemini next.”

“Ah, that's Kisumi's sign,” Sousuke said.

“You mean, you don't even know your own sign, but you know someone else's?” Nagisa asked.

“Kisumi's more into this stuff than me, so I've heard him mention it before,” answered Sousuke.

“That's cool! Kisu-chan should totally hang out with me more, so we can talk about star signs together and also so he can tell me how he gets his hair that pretty colour,” Nagisa replied, “So what can Kisu-chan expect in his future?”

“Gemini, um... your friends need you to help them with clothes shopping again. They hate to ask, but they suck at it and you're much better at picking out shirts that look good on them. Specifically your Virgo friends. Please help them,” stated Sousuke. He was certain that Kisumi wasn't listening to this show or was even awake at this time, but it was worth a shot.

Upon hearing that, Nagisa started dying with laughter. It went on for just long enough that Sousuke wasn't sure if he was going to do the next ones, but then he managed to recover.

“Okay, sorry about that, everyone. So... uh, Taurus. Yeah, that's it. Taurus, you should travel today. It's early summer and you still have so much ahead of you, but if you wait around, it'll be gone before you know it. So go on adventures now and you won't regret it later,” Nagisa said, “Last one is Aries, so please send us off with a bang, Sou-chan.”

“If you're an Aries then you're probably getting some good sleep right now. You're a very lucky person. Keep sleeping. Maybe even lie in until the afternoon, no one will blame you for it,” Sousuke said.

“Well, that's it for this week's stars! Up next we have a couple of new songs that I downloaded last night, but haven't even listened to myself yet, so I guess we'll find out if they're good together. Thanks for sticking with us, Iwatobi, and we'll see you after the break,” said Nagisa. He started playing the next song and then turned to look at Sousuke as soon as the light blinked off; “That was so much fun! You're a natural at this!”

“If you say so,” replied Sousuke.

He didn't mind so much about making the predictions up, since Nagisa made it pretty clear throughout that this was exactly what he was doing. Plus, it was weirdly fun to make up nice things that could happen to people he knew, especially since they probably weren't listening. It was like sending good vibes their way.

“Right, so the star sign segment is kind of a long one. I like doing it because it takes up loads of time, even more now that I have someone to chat with me,” Nagisa said, “We just have to fill up the rest of the hour now and then we're done. Were you serious about getting food? I mean, we probably won't find hot dogs at this time, but I know this all you can eat breakfast buffet close by. Between the two of us I reckon we could give them a run for their money.”

“They'll end up regretting letting us in,” Sousuke agreed, “Sure, I don't see why not.”

***

So just like he'd wanted, Sousuke ended up with a friend. One that he had plans with for most of the week, if the radio show panned out. It ended up being pretty okay, if Sousuke was honest. The fact that they were on such an obscure timeslot gave Sousuke more confidence to just say whatever he felt like and Nagisa seemed to have a structure for each day, so they were never without guidelines. Sousuke could see himself getting used to the whole thing.

But then Tuesday came around and something a little different happened. Nagisa put out a request for calls.

“Tuesday is confessions and you know what that means,” Nagisa said, smirking into his microphone, “It's 3am, just the time when you're lying in bed, regretting something bad that you've done in the past. Maybe it'll help you to get it off your chest. We won't judge here. Ain't that right, DJ Deep End?”

“It's Sousuke.”

“Yep, he won't judge and neither will I. So just give us a call and confess away,” Nagisa said, “We'll get back to you right after this break.”

“Does anyone actually call?” Sousuke asked, as soon as they were off air.

“We have, like, one regular listener who might, but only because he feels bad for me,” answered Nagisa, “But don't worry, if we don't get any then we'll just make some confessions of our own.”

“What if I don't want to confess anything?” Sousuke grumbled.

“Just make it something harmless,” Nagisa dismissed, “Last week I confessed that I ate all of the ice cream sandwiches before my sisters even knew they were in the freezer. No one was hurt by that.”

“If you say so...” replied Sousuke.

Once they were back, Nagisa checked and found that they had no calls on the line, so Sousuke ended up put on the spot.

“Sou-chan, please warm us up by telling us something you did that you feel bad about,” Nagisa requested.

“Okay, so... uh...” Sousuke racked his brain, trying to think of anything. Eventually, something came, “When I was thirteen, there was this scoop shop that I'd go to with my friends to get sweets. We always got the pick 'n' mix from there. One time, I bought these two strawberry chews. When we got out of the shop I realised that there were three of them stuck together, even though I'd only paid for two. But I was too scared to go back inside, in case they thought that I'd stolen it on purpose. So I ate that strawberry chew, even though I hadn't paid for it. Then I never went back to that scoop shop again, in case they called the police.”

“Woooow, Sou-chan! That's very brave of you to say!” Nagisa praised, “Hopefully they'll have forgiven you now, all these years later. I'll just put us on to our next song- ...Oh wait, we do have a call on the line! Gimme a sec!” With that, Nagisa reached over to grab the phone and spoke before the person on the other end even had a chance, “Heeey, Mako-chan! What's up?”

Sousuke's blood turned to ice. Makoto was listening to this show? And he'd rang in? How could Nagisa be so sure it was him?

But then a voice spoke up and, sure enough, it belonged to Makoto.

“Hey Nagisa, hope that you're doing well,” Makoto said, “I didn't call before, because I don't think I have anything left to confess that you haven't already gotten out of me. But when I heard Sousuke's confession, I knew that I had to ring in. Sousuke, it's such a shame that you've been carrying around the guilt for what you've done this whole time, but now that you're older, I hope you can see that it isn't so bad. It's mostly a shame that you ended up having to avoid that place because of it. Maybe for your peace of mind, you should go back there and admit to what you did. I'm sure they'd just let you pay for the extra chew now, if it matters that much to them.”

“Uh... thanks, Tachibana... I'll... keep your advice in mind,” Sousuke mumbled.

This was so surreal. He was getting advice from Makoto Tachibana while on air, during a radio show that he didn't know Makoto listened to. He didn't even know that anyone at all listened to it...

“Maybe this could be our new addition to the segment – helping people who've made confessions,” Nagisa suggested, “Everyone at home, if you ever hear a confession and think that you could help out, then just ring up and let them know! Thank you so much for that, Mako-chan! I'm gonna hang up on you now, but I'll see you later, okay?”

“Sure! Bye guys,” Makoto said, before Nagisa cut him off.

“Wasn't that nice, everyone? Well, time for more tunes as you all reflect on your secrets and how they might not be as bad as you've been worrying they are,” said Nagisa.

The light turned off. Sousuke didn't wait.

“Why didn't you tell me that Makoto listens to this?” he demanded.

“It didn't seem like a big deal,” Nagisa replied, with a shrug, “He listens to every show, which is good of him, since he's definitely not a morning person. But don't worry, I'm pretty sure he's the only one.”

“All right. That's... fine,” said Sousuke.

He could live with Makoto listen to him make an idiot out of himself on the radio, as long as he was the only one. What harm could Makoto do?

***

After the show, Sousuke took Makoto's words to heart and actually did go back to that scoop shop that he hadn't been to since he was a kid. Honestly, he was surprised that it was still open, but the old couple who ran it looked exactly like he remembered.

As he got through the door, he found himself wondering how he could even broach such a subject. Just say hello and then explain that he accidentally stole something a few years ago and that it's been on his mind ever since? If he had to pay for the chew now then would it be the price that it originally was or would he have to make up for the inflation in the market? How much did a strawberry chew even cost these days?

But it turned out that he didn't have to worry about any of those questions, because as soon as he got through the door, the old lady's face lit up.

“Ushio, come look!” she called to her husband, “It's DJ Deep End, from the early morning show. He's come to confess about the chew.”

Sousuke wanted to run out of the shop right away, but he found that his legs had frozen to the spot.

The old lady's husband came out and squinted at Sousuke from behind his glasses; “So it is him, Mikage. Gosh, haven't seen you around here for years, son. It's such a shame that what happened scared you off. You and your little friends used to be our best customers.”

“I, eh...”

There was nothing that Sousuke could say. They knew why he was here. They listened to the show. Granted, they didn't seem to mind that he'd stolen from them, but that wasn't the point.

“Son, it was very brave of you to come here today,” the man called Ushio said, while Sousuke still struggled to find his words, “You know what? Because of all this, I'm going to give you a whole bag of strawberry chews, on the house.”

“You d-don't have to do that...” mumbled Sousuke.

“No, I won't hear that you won't take them,” Ushio insisted, “All I ask is that if you could tell everyone on your radio show how good they are, then maybe that'd do us a favour. Kids today don't come to scoop shops any more. But if they heard that cool young men like you and Spicy Rockhopper do, then I'm sure that'd get them through the doors. Supporting local businesses sounds like something you should be doing.”

“I mean... I guess I could?” Sousuke replied, “But I don't think it'd make much difference. I think it's only you guys and Nagisa's friend Makoto who listens to the show. And Makoto lives in Iwatobi, so I doubt he'd come all the way to Sano just for some sweets.”

“Do young people really not listen to that show?” Mikage asked, “All of my friends listen to it. Whenever we go to the bingo, we always talk about that funny young DJ and it's been even better since he's had you to bounce off. Your gruff guy act does balance out how wild he is.”

“That... that isn't an act. In either of our cases,” Sousuke corrected. His head was spinning from learning that every old person in Sano apparently listened to him bickering with Nagisa.

“Well, whatever it is, keep up the good work, son.”

***

When Sousuke got into the recording booth the next morning, he dumped the bag on strawberry chews down on a table. Nagisa's eyes lit up upon sight of them, but Sousuke wasn't letting him have any just yet. He put his hand pointedly over the top of the bag and glared at Nagisa.

“I got these from the scoop shop,” he said.

“That's great, Sou-chan! I'm so glad that you went there and worked everything out,” chimed Nagisa.

“Yeah, it worked out because they listened to the show and heard my story,” Sousuke said, “Apparently all the old people in Sano do.”

Nagisa pulled a face; “So we do have a slight following with the seventy-five-and-over crowd. It's just because they're the only ones out of bed at that time. Is it so bad if a bunch of old people hear us talk about nothing important for a while?”

“I guess not,” Sousuke admitted, “As long as it's just them. So yeah, they gave me these and asked if we could promote them on the show. Though I told them it probably won't make much difference, since Makoto's the only person younger than them who listens to us and it's a bit far out of his way.”

“Do they have chocolate?” Nagisa checked.

“Probably. Why?”

“Mako-chan's a chocoholic. If you tell him that they do good chocolate there, then I promise you that he'll go,” said Nagisa, “So... can we eat these now?”

Sousuke took his hand off the bag.

“Sure, knock yourself out,” he said.

With that, Nagisa took a handful of chews out of the bag, shoved them into his mouth and then hit the switch to put them on air without even waiting until he'd finished chewing.

“...Sorreh abo-wht the... sw-ight de... mmm! ...I mean, the slight delay, folks! As you can hear, DJ Deep End and me are busy chowing down on these strawberry chews that we got from the Sano Scoop Shop. Isn't that right, Sou-chan?” Nagisa prompted.

“Y-yeah...? Yeah, we are,” Sousuke added.

That wasn't good enough for Nagisa. He picked up a handful of chews and shoved them in Sousuke's face. Sousuke sighed, but then took the chews from Nagisa and rammed them into his mouth. They were admittedly as good as he remembered them being.

“Thweese areh... uhhh... gweath... Great, they're great...” he corrected.

Then he almost died coughing, from having swallowed one too quickly. The sound of him thumping his own chest picked up on the recording, but Nagisa recovered the situation like a pro.

“Maybe you guys recall that on the last confession time, Sou-chan admitted to having accidentally stolen one of these chews from that shop when he was a teeny tiny kid. Although probably not tiny, because Sou-chan must have been born a giant,” Nagisa said, while Sousuke coughed in the background, “Well, Sou-chan took Mako-chan's advice and went to apologise for what he'd done. Turned out that everything went okay! The lovely people who run the shop are fans of this show, just like all of you guys. So they gave us some of these chews and we just can't get enough of them! I can't wait to get over to Sano after the show, so that I can try their full range of chews, ice cream, sherbet, mints and delicious, delicious chocolate! If that sounds like something that you'd be into as well, then you should totally check it out. Maybe you'll even see us there!”

While Sousuke thought that Nagisa was laying on the advertising a bit thick, at least it gave him time to sort himself out and grab a drink of water, so we wasn't going to complain.

“Well anyway, I guess that we should get to our regular music schedule,” Nagisa continued, “Though it's kind of nice when something out of the ordinary happens, huh? You never know what to expect with the two of us!”

Honestly, Sousuke found himself agreeing with that part.

***

For the next few days, Sousuke felt good about himself. He'd done the right thing. And even if nothing else came of the scoop shop incident beyond his conscience being cleared about what he'd done when he was younger, that felt like enough.

Besides, it meant that he could actually go there without feeling bad about it any more. Though he hoped that the old couple wouldn't ask him to do more advertising, since he'd feel bad about taking so much free stuff when they probably won't get anything back from it.

He made his way over there one afternoon. Only to find that the shop was... it was packed.

Well, it was the middle of summer and anywhere that sold ice cream was probably doing pretty well for itself. Sousuke made his way through the crowd, even recognising a few faces from Samezuka, who waved to him cheerfully. The old woman behind the counter recognised him as well and before Sousuke could stop her, she was calling out to the crowd.

“Everyone, here's DJ Deep End himself!” she yelled, “We're always glad to see him come visit.”

Sousuke laughed awkwardly; “I'm pretty sure no one here knows who I am...”

Except for the guys from Samezuka, but that was a given.

“Of course they know who you are, son,” said Ushio, as he came out from the back, carrying a box of sherbet lemons, “All these people started coming here after listening to your show. We've been so busy. Thanks to you!”

Sousuke looked across the room, from the Samezuka students to the parents to kids who looked like they were no older than thirteen. They'd... all heard the show?

“But it's the 3am slot...” he mumbled, as if trying to reason with them.

“Oh yeah, I never used to get up that early,” said a teenage girl, “But then my friend told me about you guys and how you make such a cute, funny couple, so I had to listen. You guys should sell shirts, I'd totally buy them.”

“Nagisa and me... we're not a couple...” Sousuke whispered.

“Don't ruin the magic,” said the girl's friend, “You're a couple to us.”

“But we're real people,” Sousuke reasoned, “If we say we're not a couple, then we're not.”

“Do you think he has a crush on you then?” the first girl asked, “He's always flirting with you.”

“I... uh, I don't know if he does. But that's just how Nagisa talks to everyone. Trust me. He's not flirting,” assured Sousuke.

“Do you have a crush on him?” pressed the second girl.

“No! I mean... well, I haven't thought about it. But even if I did, I wouldn't tell a couple of strangers. That kind of thing is private,” he snapped.

The Samezuka guys were snickering behind him. Sousuke wished that the ground would swallow him up. Or swallow them up. Either way worked.

“Aww, it feels like we know you though...” said one of the girls, “You guys talk so openly with each other. It feels like you're part of our lives. And even though I've never met them, I know about your friends, like the nice guy who always calls into the show and the swimming guy and that Rei-chan guy. It always feels so good to hear about them.”

Suddenly Sousuke could see that Nagisa talking about everyone he knew on the radio was possibly intrusive to their lives. It was also starting to seem a lot like it was intrusive to Sousuke's life. When he thought it was just Makoto and some elderly people listening to the show, that was different. But this was a lot of people. Some of them people who Sousuke knew.

He wasn't having it. He couldn't have it.

Sousuke stormed out of the scoop shop without a backwards glance.

***

He'd never been to Nagisa's house before, but it didn't take much effort to find the right place, as it seemed to be the largest one in the neighbourhood. His family must be loaded. Yet that didn't stop Sousuke from ringing the doorbell and keeping his face as grim as ever when Nagisa answered, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

“...Oh, hey, Sou-chan,” Nagisa yawned, “I was just catching a nap. All these early starts take it right outta me.”

“Nagisa, this needs to stop,” Sousuke stated.

“The naps? But they really help!” whined Nagisa, with a pout.

“No, I mean the show,” Sousuke corrected, “People actually listen to it. A lot of people. You're talking about our friends' lives and our lives on the radio and people are hearing it. When I went to the scoop shop today, it was packed with people who'd all heard about that place from our show.”

“That means the advertising worked then. We should be glad for the people who own the shop that it worked out,” said Nagisa.

“That's not the point. The point is that you told me no one listened to this show, but people do!” Sousuke snapped, “Do you... have any idea how many people listen to the show...?”

Nagisa hesitated. Then he looked down. He could make up horoscopes, but he wasn't a good liar when it counted.

“There are... s-statistics...” he mumbled.

“You knew! You knew we had all those listeners and you lied to me!” yelled Sousuke. Above them, a window cracked open and he heard whispering from what must have been Nagisa's sisters, but right now he didn't care.

“Only because I knew how nervous you were!” Nagisa argued, “And the show didn't used to get many listeners except for Mako-chan and the old people. It was only after you joined that it started to pick up. But you were getting so, so into it... I could tell you were enjoying it. If you knew how big the audience was, then you would've gotten stage fright!”

“You don't have to worry about that any more,” Sousuke said, much more calmly than he felt.

With that, he turned and left. Nagisa didn't call after him.

***

The argument stayed on Sousuke's mind for the rest of the day. He holed himself up in his room and didn't talk to anyone, despite his parents' chiding that he should be over his moody teenager phase by now. Sousuke stubbornly felt that he was going to be moody until the day that he died, teenager or not.

Although he supposed the one good thing to come of this was that he no longer had to get up at 2am for the show. Even so, he'd been doing it long enough now that his sleep schedule was out of whack. Combining that with him not being able to get what happened out of his mind, he was still awake at that time the next morning.

He rolled over and, despite himself, he flicked on the radio that sat on his bedside table.

“There's been a... a slight change today, folks. It's just me... DJ Nagisa. Or Spicy Rockhopper or whatever. DJ Deep End- ...actually, let's just call him Sou-chan, since he never liked that name... he resigned yesterday. I'm sorry, it was all my fault. But I'm especially sorry to him...

“It's not even Tuesday, but I have to make a confession, maybe even my worst one yet. Sou-chan had super bad stage fright, even if he wouldn't admit it. I could tell. So I... I lied to him and told him that not many people listened to this show, even though I know that everyone listens to this show now. I thought that if it helped him not worry so much that it'd be okay, but it wasn't okay. I was lying to him.

“When he found out, he was hurt by it. So he quit and... now he's gone. I guess the lesson here is that you shouldn't lie to your friends, no matter if you think you're helping them, huh? And maybe I shouldn't talk so openly about everyone I know on the radio either, since it's their private business.

“So I'm going to make some changes. Maybe I dunno what yet, but I don't want to hurt anyone else or lose any more friends because of this. So I'll think of something. Anyway... I don't feel like talking much today, so I'm just gonna put on my playlist and credit all the artists afterwards, okay...?”

Sousuke turned the radio back off and rolled over again, sighing into his pillow. It was... the right thing to do. Nagisa had been in the wrong and he'd learned his lesson.

So why did it make Sousuke hurt so much?

***

He was still asking himself that same question later in the day, as he trawled through one of the many clothes shops down town with Kisumi, who was helping him pick out some new shirts. Maybe Kisumi had heard the horoscopes segment where Sousuke asked him to take him shopping or maybe he hadn't, Sousuke didn't dare ask. But he was quietly relieved when Kisumi turned up on his doorstep and asked if he wanted to come along with him.

“Something on your mind?” Kisumi checked, as he held a pale blue shirt up against Sousuke's chest.

They'd known each other for a long time. Sousuke couldn't hide his feelings that well from Kisumi. Besides, he might be a good person to talk to about this, since he didn't know Nagisa well enough to be involved.

“Yeah, there was a... problem with my part-time job at that radio station. I quit this morning,” Sousuke replied.

“I'd be lying if I said I hadn't heard about that,” Kisumi admitted, “So how you feeling about it?”

Sousuke rubbed the back of his head; “Kind of conflicted? I did the right thing, I know I did. Nagisa shouldn't have hid the truth from me and maybe... being harsh with him was the best way he'll learn.”

“...But?” Kisumi prompted.

“But then why do I feel so terrible about it?” Sousuke said.

Kisumi lowered the shirt he'd been holding and stared across at Sousuke, as if trying to read his expression. Sousuke frowned at him, which annoyingly just made Kisumi smile.

“Because you liked spending time with Nagisa and now you feel bad that you can't,” Kisumi said.

“Yeah, but it wasn't fair that he was talking so much about everyone's lives on a show that anyone can hear. I can't keep doing that just because I like doing the show with him,” Sousuke argued.

“Was anyone actually harmed by that though?” replied Kisumi, “I mean, Makoto told me listens to your show every day, he'd have said something by now if it was bothering him. And most people I know who get a mention just feel good about it.”

“That's too general though. Some people might not feel that way,” Sousuke said.

“Then maybe find out who is okay with you talking about them beforehand?” Kisumi suggested, “There's ways around everything, Sousuke. You can make this show work if you seriously want to do it.”

“Who's saying I want to do it though?” asked Sousuke.

“You are. With this whole conversation and the fact that it's bothering you,” said Kisumi, “Sousuke, I can't tell you what to do, but I do think you're not being honest with yourself if you don't at least try to talk things through with Nagisa. You can get pretty heated when you're riled, so maybe going back with a cool head might work out better.”

Sousuke sighed; “The worst part is, I know you're right.”

“I usually am,” Kisumi chimed. He gave Sousuke a wink; “And for the record, you can talk about me on air any time you like.”

Shameless as always.

“Wait and see if I even go back to the show first. I can't make any promise,” Sousuke said.

Though in his mind, he knew that he'd made his decision.

***

“Hey, so it looks like it's gonna be a sunny one today. Good for you if you're into that. Maybe you should go hang out with your friends if you haven't blown it with them... Uh, yeah. So I was thinking about what I could talk about on the show that wouldn't incriminate anyone and I did some brainstorming with Rei-chan. He suggested that I could do an educational hour, which sounded super boring, but I'm desperate for ideas, so let's see where it gets us. He gave me these notes about photosynthesis, but I kinda zoned out while he was describing it. I think it's like plant sex or how plants make food? One of those two. So just lemme-”

The door to the recording booth creaked open and Sousuke walked through to the sight of Nagisa staring at him. Nagisa's mouth fell open. It looked so comical that this was definitely worth it for the sight alone.

“Hey...” Sousuke muttered.

“Sou-chan... you came back?” Nagisa said.

“Yeah, well... got lonely,” replied Sousuke.

He made his way over to sit down on his chair. Or he would have done if Nagisa hadn't gotten up and launched himself at him, hugging him tightly. It was a good thing Sousuke was sturdy enough to catch him.

“Sou-chan! Thank you sooo much!” Nagisa cried, “I promise I won't mess up again! I'll be honest with you about everyone who's listening!”

“It's fine. Just... don't worry about it,” said Sousuke, patting Nagisa on the back, “But you've left the mic now and no one has any idea what's going on.”

“You're right!” replied Nagisa. He let go and hurried back over to his seat; “Everyone! Sou-chan came back! He's gonna give this another go and I'll try harder not to mess up this time! It'd be awful to lose him, huh? Sou-chan, come tell us about your soul-searching adventures that made you decide to come back!”

Sousuke took to his seat; “Not much to tell, really. Talked to a friend and realised that I missed you. But I kind of knew that anyway, he just helped me admit it to myself. So... here I am. DJ Deep End is back in business.”

“You're using the name...!” squeaked Nagisa, “Our special DJ names!”

“Yeah, well... we're a couple of special DJs, so it makes sense,” replied Sousuke, “None better than us.”

“That's the spirit! And now that you're back we can totally do a new segment, all about Sou-chan! It can be a special Sou-chan day where we play his favourite music and talk about how amazing he is! Sorry Rei-chan, we'll have to do your plant sex talk another time,” Nagisa said.

“Plant sex talk...?” Sousuke wasn't sure that he wanted to do that at all; “But, uh... sure. I'll pick the music this time. And maybe when we're done with the show, we could go out to breakfast at that all you can eat place.”

“Our special reunion deserves something fancier than that! We should go to the steakhouse in town! Haru-chan does morning shifts there now, so we can totally bug him,” replied Nagisa.

“Sounds good to me,” Sousuke replied, with a smirk.

So that was how he broke up and rekindled his partnership with Nagisa in the space of two days. Once the show was over, Nagisa's social media pages were flooded with accusations that they'd staged the fight, which they both got a good laugh out of. But most people just seemed glad they were back together again. Sousuke was glad they were back together again as well. And the only official statement he made on the matter (or at least, Nagisa said it was an official statement, Sousuke thought he was just commenting on Facebook) was that the only thing the two of them staged was the horoscopes. And he could live with that.


End file.
